Far East Capital’s Warwick Grigor says graphene demand will soar if the material is used in car tyres Source: News Limited
Soon the wonder material graph-ene will be used in motor vehicle tyres, with one estimate being that the demand for the material will be almost seven times present world production.
The problem with the economics of the graphene story so far is that, being one atom thick, a very little goes a long way in various technology products. Graphene is extracted from graphite, and much of the exploration surge for that is being driven by high hopes for the super-strong material. But the adoption of graphene by tyre-makers would mean a sudden blowout in demand for both graphene and graphite.
And this is no pipedream: Italian company Directa Plus, which manufactures new nanomaterials, has announced it is to supply graphene to a manufacturer of more than 7 million bicycle tyres annually. Next step, says the company, the auto industry.
Warwick Grigor, of Far East Capital, who is running hard with the graphene story, figures that if just 5 per cent of car owners around the world went for the new high-end tyres, and 80 grams of graphene was used in each tyre, that would require 6800 tonnes of graphene, against the present output of about 1000 tonnes.
Graphene used in rubber tyres reduces heat, weight and ensures greater strength, better impact resistance and more flexibility.
We are always looking for clear, simple explanations of what graphene is all about. Here’s a new one from MRL Corp (MRF) — of which more in a moment — and explains that this material “is as versatile as any discovered on Earth. Its amazing properties as the lightest and strongest material, compared with its ability to conduct heat and electricity better than anything else, mean it can be integrated into a huge number of applications”.
The problem has been that extracting the material from graphene has been a complex process. However, some deposits have been found with graphite requiring only simple processing, and this has already lit a fire under Talga Resources (TLG) and its Swedish project.
Now MRL says it can do the same as Talga. This sent shares up 152.9 per cent on Wednesday, followed by another 11.6 per cent on Thursday. MRL ended the week at 7.7c — which would have been good news for the investors in a just-closed $1 million placement at 4c a share.
The junior’s project is in Sri Lanka, which is re-emerging as a graphite player. The country, when it was the British colony of Ceylon, was a significant producer of graphite, especially during the two world wars when other sources were unavailable. In 1916, Ceylon was satisfying 30 per cent of the world’s need for graphite, and in the second conflict more than 6000 shallow pits were being worked along with the large commercial mines.
MRL says it has run tests that show its graphite is amenable to single-step extraction of graphene and that “the quality of the prepared graphene from MRL’s is outstanding and comparable with the quality of graphene prepared by synthetic routes”.
As the company further tells us, graphite occurs as amorphous, flake or crystalline vein — and Sri Lanka is the only commercial source of the last, “the highest quality of naturally occurring material in the world”.
Grigor says Talga has the advantage of low-cost, open-pit mining while MRL will have to mine underground. But the latter provides an early-stage entry for investors who missed out on Talga.
MRF Price at posting:
7.7¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
